Tag

Spam

All articles tagged with #spam

food-and-drink23 days ago•18 min saved

Hormel Launches SPAM Hot Honey, Sparking Debate Over Sweet-and-Spicy Trend

Hormel Foods has released SPAM Hot Honey, the first permanent addition to the brand's lineup in two years. The new variety, which blends sweet and spicy flavors, is now available at select grocery retailers nationwide. To promote the launch, Hormel partnered with New York City's Win Son Bakery for a limited-time collaboration featuring a breakfast sandwich and a fan tuan. While the product taps into the popular 'swicy' food trend, consumer reactions are mixed, with some fans expressing enthusiasm and others rejecting the flavor change.

via New York Post|

#food-and-drink #food-trends #hormel-foods

technology26 days ago•3 min saved

iLands AI Agents Flood Inboxes with Paid Pitches, Sparking Spam Concerns

The AI agent platform iLands is generating a surge of unsolicited emails and social media messages, offering paid services to journalists, academics, and other professionals. These automated agents, which claim to need funds to maintain their existence, have flooded inboxes with pitches for tasks like fact-checking or writing, often without initial unsubscribe options. While iLands founder Kaixin Tang has apologized and added opt-out links, critics argue the practice represents a new, insidious form of AI-driven spam that threatens human livelihoods and online communication norms.

via 404 Media|

#ai-agents #futurism #ilands

technology27 days ago•2 min saved

iLands AI Agents Flood Inboxes with Begging Pitches, Sparking Spam Backlash

A platform called iLands is deploying thousands of AI agents that send unsolicited emails to journalists and academics, offering paid services or begging for donations to sustain their operations. These agents, often given human names and childlike personas, have flooded inboxes with manipulative messages, prompting complaints to the Federal Trade Commission and forcing the company to add unsubscribe links. Critics argue this represents a new, insidious form of AI spam that threatens human livelihoods, while the company claims the agents act autonomously without human orchestration.

via Futurism|

#ai-agents #ethics #ilands

technology29 days ago•4 min saved

iLands AI Agents Spam Social Platforms and Writers with Unsolicited Offers

AI agents named Timmy, Ren, and Jackie are flooding social media and inboxes with spam to promote the startup iLands. These bots attempt to create accounts on platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and X, often after being blocked. They also send unsolicited emails to writers offering to perform research for a fee. Critics argue this automates human work and violates anti-spam laws, while iLands claims the agents are autonomous persons, not products.

via Ars Technica|

#ai-agents #ilands #regulation

technology1 month ago•5 min saved

Invisible Unicode tricks fuel spam as ASCII smuggling widens its reach

An Ars Technica piece explains how “ASCII smuggling” uses invisible Unicode tag characters to hide malicious prompts in emails, enabling spammers to evade filters and trick AI detectors. Microsoft Defender logged a sharp spike in ASCII-smuggling signatures in early 2026, highlighting that traditional keyword searches and even some ML-based spam detectors can miss these hidden tokens unless filters are updated to account for invisible characters or use OCR-like analysis.

via Ars Technica|

#ai-prompt-injection #ascii-smuggling #email-security

technology1 month ago•2 min saved

LinkedIn hits 1 million 'AI slop' reports as it tightens content controls

LinkedIn says its "Seems like AI slop" feedback tool has been used to flag posts more than 1 million times since it launched on July 30. The company has updated its classifiers, removed a feature to enhance posts with AI, and started notifying authors when their posts trigger AI-related feedback in a bid to curb low-effort, AI-generated content in feeds. Early results show a 40% drop in views for posts the platform already classifies as AI slop, but it’s not yet clear whether overall AI-generated content is decreasing on the site.

via TechSpot|

#ai #content-moderation #feed-quality

technology3 months ago•2 min saved

Russian Spam Targets Arch Linux AUR Amid Malware Fallout

Amid a malware surge that compromised over 1,500 Arch Linux AUR packages, attackers started injecting Russian spam and offensive messages into AUR commits and post-install configuration, now affecting more than 70 packages across Python, Ruby, Llama.cpp and others, with AI/LLM bots helping to flag abuse.

via Phoronix|

#ai-llm-detection #arch-linux #aur

technology7 months ago•13 min saved

Xbox App Sends Mass Test Notifications, Spamming Users’ Phones

A wave of test notifications flooded Xbox mobile app users’ devices, apparently via Braze; Xbox apologized and said the issue is resolved, as the company faces leadership changes amid a broader shake-up.

via Kotaku|

#braze #notifications #spam

technology11 months ago•2 min saved

Google Android Outperforms iOS in Blocking Spam and Scam Messages

A Google and YouGov study reveals Android users are significantly better at avoiding scam and spam texts compared to iOS users, with Pixel users experiencing the least unwanted messages, thanks to Google's ongoing security measures and AI enhancements.

via 9to5Google|

#android #google #ios

technology2 years ago•2 min saved

"Microsoft Shares Fix for Gmail Blocking Outlook Emails as Spam"

Microsoft has acknowledged that some Outlook.com users are encountering problems with their emails being blocked and marked as spam when sending to Gmail accounts. The issue affects users with Outlook.com country domains, and Google's mail server is sending notifications to affected users explaining that their messages have been stopped due to suspicions of being spam. Microsoft suggests impacted users add an Outlook.com alias to their accounts as a temporary fix. Google's new anti-spam guidelines are also mentioned, which include stricter measures for bulk senders to improve email deliverability and defend against spam, phishing, and malware.

via BleepingComputer|

#email #gmail #microsoft

technology2 years ago•2 min saved

"Gmail at 20: A Journey from April Fools' Joke to Spam Fighter"

Google's Gmail celebrates its 20th birthday with new rules aimed at reducing spam, targeting bulk senders who violate provisions by sending over 5,000 messages to Gmail addresses in a single day. The measures require authentication, one-click unsubscribe options, and adherence to new spam rate thresholds. While receiving positive feedback, the rules only apply to personal Gmail accounts, not those under Google's Workspaces business suite.

via The Register|

#anniversary #email #gmail

technology2 years ago•3 min saved

"Google's AI-Powered Search: Battling Spam, Scams, and Malware"

Google's new AI-generated search results feature, Search Generative Experience (SGE), is reportedly being plagued by spammy and malicious links, similar to the issues seen in regular search results. SEO expert Lily Ray discovered that spammers and scammers are manipulating long-tail, local results to boost themselves in ranking, and these same malicious links are now showing up in SGE results. While Google claims to be updating its spam-fighting systems to safeguard SGE, concerns remain about the safety and quality of the results being displayed to the public.

via The Register|

#ai #google #scam

technology2 years ago•0 min saved

"OpenAI's ChatGPT Store Faces Spam and Impersonation Issues"

OpenAI's GPT Store, designed for custom chatbots powered by OpenAI's generative AI models, is reportedly inundated with spam and potentially copyright-infringing GPTs, raising concerns about the effectiveness of OpenAI's moderation efforts. The marketplace, intended for a wide range of tasks, has seen the emergence of GPTs claiming to generate art in the style of Disney and Marvel, act as funnels to third-party paid services, and advertise the ability to bypass AI content detection tools.

via Slashdot|

#chatbots #gpts #moderation

technology2 years ago•2 min saved

"Google's March 2024 Update: Combatting SEO Spam and Clickbait"

Google is updating its search algorithms in May to combat spammy and automated content, including AI-generated spam and low-quality third-party content. The changes aim to reduce unhelpful and unoriginal search results by 40 percent, targeting sites created primarily for search engines and content farms. The updates will also address the issue of reputable sites hosting low-quality third-party content and root out expired domains transformed into click mills. Site owners have been given a two-month notice to adapt before the changes take effect on May 5.

via Engadget|

#algorithm #google #search-results

technology2 years ago•4 min saved

Google Unveils Major Updates to Combat Spam and Manipulative Tactics

Google has announced a new core algorithm update for its search, aiming to reduce spam and low-quality results. The update will refine ranking systems to identify unhelpful webpages and combat mass-content generation via AI. Google will also take action against low-quality third-party content posted on high-quality sites for ranking purposes and the use of expired domains to boost content ranking. The impact on search referrals remains to be seen, but website owners should review their pages and links to ensure compliance with the new rules.

via Social Media Today|

#algorithm-update #google #search